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A review by meilin
In Trouble by Ellen Levine
2.0
I did finish this book, but overall I didn't enjoy as much as I thought I would.
The book takes place in the mid 1950's where Elvis is the craze and sex before marriage is looked down upon. The book centers around two girls, Jamie and Elaine. Jamie has a large Jewish dominant family and father who was arrested for being a member of the Communist Party. Elaine has overprotective parents watching her every move while dating a boy in college who's pressuring her to have sex. When Elaine gets pregnant, she remains hopelessly in love with her boyfriend who is ignoring her at all cost and a hopeless dream of a family with him. Jamie ignores her cousin at all cost after the incident, until it happens.
Spoilers
I enjoyed the plot and setting of book. I haven't read many books dealing with teen pregnancy and abortions. It's now glamorized with shows such as Teen Mom and Sixteen and Pregnant. I didn't realize back then how looked down upon it was. It was interesting to see how the characters faced the decision of keeping an unwanted pregnancy or not.
However, it was predictable what would happen. Jamie with her understanding family does anything to help her regardless of what happened and eventually get an abortion for her. Okay. The people that were around Jamie either knew that she was pregnant and tried to help as much as possible or didn't look down on her. Paul and Georgina were with her at doctor's check ups. Okay. On the other hand,Elaine has overprotective parents and wanted to shroud the pregnancy as much as possible. In the end she doesn't get to keep her baby or a happy family with Neil. Yup.
The writing wasn't great at all. Once she got a decent start, it stopped with a Run! It stopped the flow of reading and was hard to keep going continuously. I felt when reading how awkward some sentences sounded and didn't connect. Anyone can have words to make a book, but to make a story you need more. It wasn't able to make a story, just tell.
The characters were pretty much one dimensional. Elaine was the only one stereotypical in my opinion. She was a girl hopelessly in love and holding onto sweet nothings from her boyfriend. She was so hopelessly in love, she believed he'd come back, he'd love her, he'd have a family with her. HA, NOPE. Jamie was a strong character, but didn't have much life in her either. She was there for her best friend, she didn't want to have a baby for it would interrupt her future, and she was realistic of what would happen. Jamie's dad was adjusting to everyday life after jail and a political prisoner. Interesting, but not in depth. Then I felt as if the other characters were just there or filler to the story. They wouldn't be enjoyable or memorable characters.
I honestly felt like this story was a dystopian in my mind for some odd reason. I think it's because nowadays it's so common to have sex before marriage and teen pregnancies aren't always looked down upon know, but again glamorized by television. It just didn't click with me how bad it was back then to be a teen and pregnant. It didn't make it deep enough for me to realize how bad it was then. The Doctor Who episode, Are You My Mommy, (can't remember the title) made a deeper realization to me than this book. It did seem bizarre how secret it was, by sending the teen mom away to give birth or the almost black market abortion clinics.
I just didn't enjoy this book as much as I thought. Meh.
The book takes place in the mid 1950's where Elvis is the craze and sex before marriage is looked down upon. The book centers around two girls, Jamie and Elaine. Jamie has a large Jewish dominant family and father who was arrested for being a member of the Communist Party. Elaine has overprotective parents watching her every move while dating a boy in college who's pressuring her to have sex. When Elaine gets pregnant, she remains hopelessly in love with her boyfriend who is ignoring her at all cost and a hopeless dream of a family with him. Jamie ignores her cousin at all cost after the incident, until it happens.
Spoilers
I enjoyed the plot and setting of book. I haven't read many books dealing with teen pregnancy and abortions. It's now glamorized with shows such as Teen Mom and Sixteen and Pregnant. I didn't realize back then how looked down upon it was. It was interesting to see how the characters faced the decision of keeping an unwanted pregnancy or not.
However, it was predictable what would happen. Jamie with her understanding family does anything to help her regardless of what happened and eventually get an abortion for her. Okay. The people that were around Jamie either knew that she was pregnant and tried to help as much as possible or didn't look down on her. Paul and Georgina were with her at doctor's check ups. Okay. On the other hand,Elaine has overprotective parents and wanted to shroud the pregnancy as much as possible. In the end she doesn't get to keep her baby or a happy family with Neil. Yup.
The writing wasn't great at all. Once she got a decent start, it stopped with a Run! It stopped the flow of reading and was hard to keep going continuously. I felt when reading how awkward some sentences sounded and didn't connect. Anyone can have words to make a book, but to make a story you need more. It wasn't able to make a story, just tell.
The characters were pretty much one dimensional. Elaine was the only one stereotypical in my opinion. She was a girl hopelessly in love and holding onto sweet nothings from her boyfriend. She was so hopelessly in love, she believed he'd come back, he'd love her, he'd have a family with her. HA, NOPE. Jamie was a strong character, but didn't have much life in her either. She was there for her best friend, she didn't want to have a baby for it would interrupt her future, and she was realistic of what would happen. Jamie's dad was adjusting to everyday life after jail and a political prisoner. Interesting, but not in depth. Then I felt as if the other characters were just there or filler to the story. They wouldn't be enjoyable or memorable characters.
I honestly felt like this story was a dystopian in my mind for some odd reason. I think it's because nowadays it's so common to have sex before marriage and teen pregnancies aren't always looked down upon know, but again glamorized by television. It just didn't click with me how bad it was back then to be a teen and pregnant. It didn't make it deep enough for me to realize how bad it was then. The Doctor Who episode, Are You My Mommy, (can't remember the title) made a deeper realization to me than this book. It did seem bizarre how secret it was, by sending the teen mom away to give birth or the almost black market abortion clinics.
I just didn't enjoy this book as much as I thought. Meh.